Tag Archives: cattle

Utes, Udders and Unexpected additions!

Well,  I am back! Back in more ways than one.  I have been away on the most wonderful trip to Jerusalem and The Holy Land.  It was the most amazing experience and I am so glad to have done it.  I have definitely come back in a different frame of mind. I am still coping with the despair of losing Pete.  That hasn’t changed,  but I have changed my outlook about what I am doing with myself.  Things haven’t changed that much but I feel differently about them now.  Which is great!

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Jerusalem!

The farm is toddling along and I am experiencing my second season of calving.  I don’t have a lot of cows, but the worry of them calving without any difficulties is one that keeps me anxious about them and I am checking on them twice a day to make sure they are all ok.  So far I have 5 calves and they have all popped out as they should, so, fingers crossed, I am hoping I have a smooth run this year with the rest.

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Brand new!

I have been struggling with an old ute that Pete and I bought a few years ago.  It’s a Hilux and has so far done a good job, but it has definitely seen better days and after an extremely annoying incident where I was out looking at the cattle, I tried to reverse it back up the hill and ran over a large rock that split and cut a huge gash in the side of the tyre wall.  I sat there and just listened to the steady hiss of the tyre deflating.  Bugger!! So I got the dogs and we walked back to the house and once again my Good Samaritan, Chris, came to the rescue and changed the tyre and we brought the ute back to the house.  He candidly said that he thought that would be the last time I would be changing a tyre on it as it was ready for the tip or I would have to pay someone to take it away. Spurred on by his astute assessment of “Old Jim” as it is called, I started looking earnestly for a new one.  I found success at Lithgow with a 15-year-old Hilux in great condition with everything I needed.  So I bargained and got a good price and brought it home and I’m extremely happy with it.  The sheer luxury of power steering is just one of the great things about it.  No more yanking the steering wheel around in Jim!!

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My new ute!

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The dogs are very pleased with the new ute.

One big problem with retiring Jim is that I had a full tank of weed spray on the back which I needed to use before I could put him out to pasture. I came up with the idea of transferring the weed mix from my tank into my brother in law’s one, so Phil came over and we pretty well emptied it.  There was just enough left for me to poison the weeds around the gravel driveway and down the drive. At one point, I thought I would have a look inside the tank just to see how much was left and as I stuck my head down into the opening on the top I realised that my fringe had dipped into the red dye that had collected around the rim. When I came inside I looked at myself and discovered that i had given myself a pink tint which a lot of people have said is very trendy at the moment!  Must remember to tie my hair back in future!!

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Punk pink!

I think Jim would make a very good jungle gym for my new addition to the farm.  I re-inherited a goat that used to live here when we were farming Boer goats a while back. Her name is Lulu and she was left here when we finally sold all the others.  She became a pet and moved from my place to my nieces property next door.  She has come back here to live now but goats are herd animals and unfortunately I didn’t have any “herd” for her.  She used to hang with the donkeys, but they are long gone now.  So I decided to get her another goat to keep her company.  What’s one more, I said?  So I ended up with  a little doe and a wether ( a neutered male).  They are a year old and adorable.  Lulu is quite thrilled with them and they have made themselves at home.  They were in the main paddock but I discovered that they could cross the cattle grid, just like the Billy Goats Gruff – trip trap right across the iron slats – cheeky little things, so they have been moved to the horse paddock where long overdue fence mending had to be done.  I spent nearly a whole day tying wire and twisting it to mend holes made by various animals from goats to kangaroos.  They are now happily at home there and I think Jim would make a lovely climbing gym for them to have fun on.  Goats love to climb and it will make them very happy!

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The new arrivals!

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My climbing goats!

Mechanical Mysteries

I have discovered with having a farm that there is a phenomenon where nothing works together all the time.  There is always some bit of machinery or vehicle  that won’t work or has broken down or has flooded or conked out.  I am continually on a learning curve with all things mechanical  around the place. This was primarily Pete’s department and I find myself mumbling to him as I peer mysteriously into engines and check batteries about what I should be doing.

In the last two weeks the Ute has had to be taken to the mechanics to be fixed,  the bike won’t start, the ride-on mower won’t start and the  4 x 4 gator’s tilt tray is stuck so I can’t get to the engine under it.  On the plus side, the little quad bike is going like the clappers so that has been a bonus.

I managed to limp the Ute into the mechanics last week and said fix it!  I brought it home and its now going again.  Needed new oil filter, engine mounts….all those things I know so much about!  The guy  from the mower repairs came out from town and managed to get the tilt tray unlocked on the gator (this is like a little 4 x 4 golf cart).  I could never have fixed it myself.  Brute strength was needed!  The battery needed recharging and I knew that but until the tray was up I couldn’t get to it.  He also said the air filter needed cleaning out. The what? I now know what the air filter looks like and how to get to it and how to clean it out!! Another plus! He suggested I use our air compressor to clean it out at the same time that I clean the air filter on the tractor….Riiiight!!   As for the ride on mower, it was flooded and I think it had the wrong fuel in it….hmmm.  I am still trying to decide what to do about the bike.  I think I may have to sell it.  I can’t hold it up, let alone ride it.  The boys may have something to say about that though!

While all this is going on, I noticed that the horse trough in the horses paddock wasn’t filling up.  It has an automatic refill floatation device much like the float in a toilet.  I had a couple of dear friends staying and we went through all the things that it could be.  Was it the pump from the bore not working?  Was it an electrical short to the bore? Was the tank to the bore filling properly? Then I went and checked the round tank in one of the paddocks that was fed from the bore.  That wasn’t filling either.  I rang my lovely nephew-in-law, who is a plumber, and ran through the multitude of things that could have stopped it but we had no success,  so he is going to come up and check it out for me.  I am so lucky to have lovely helpers.

The “crazy moment of the day” was as I was in the midst of the pump problem, I looked up to see all my cows and heifers stampeding across the paddock in front of me and through a gate into the property next door. What the??? I am having the boundary fencing replaced between my property and the next door neighbours.  This has a quad gate that had to be repaired as well and it was open.  The boys were using the tractor and when the cattle heard and saw it they thought, “Hay – Yippee” and went stampeding through the gate to get it. This is usually how we deliver a large bale of hay to them. Unfortunately,  this time there was no hay.  I had to jump in the car and race over there and herd them all up and push them back through the gate into my place.  They weren’t very impressed and weren’t very cooperative about coming back, but eventually I got them all through and had to laugh and was quite chuffed as one of the fencing boys yelled out  “Great mustering Mate”!

Made my day!!!